Tiger is tracking
Woods begins third round 5-under through seven holes to climb into contention at Riviera
If you’re this close to Hollywood you might as well have Tiger Woods steal the show.
The 14-time-major winner electrified the crowd at Riviera on Saturday afternoon, beginning his third round birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie to rocket on to the first page of the leaderboard before darkness chased players from the famed golf course. Woods has 11 holes to complete in his third round.
“The way I was feeling, the way I was playing, I wanted to play as many holes as possible,” Wood said.
Woods said that he plans to wake up between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. to begin preparing for the 6:45 a.m. resumption of play.
“Up early and start working on it and staying loose and staying ready,” he said. “It’s just going to be a lot of walking, and the last couple days, it’s definitely testing the body.”
The 14-time major winner finished Saturday at sevenunder par after narrowly making the even-par 36-hole cut just hours earlier at the weather-delayed Genesis Open.
The roars were almost on top of each other when Woods made eagle at the par-5 11th hole and then Phil Mickelson made a 34-foot eagle putt on the driveable par-4 10th a minute later.
Mickelson quickly gave those strokes back, however, with bogeys at the 11th and 13th. He will begin Sunday at one-under par, with 12 holes remaining in his third round.
Leader Justin Thomas only got through two holes of his third round on Saturday — most of the day was spent catching up on Round 2 — but made the most of it with an eagle three at the par-5, first hole.
“Being just two holes in, but it just is such along day ,” Thomas said. “It’s good to get off to a good start and go home and get some rest.”
The No. 4 ranked player in the world has been on fire at the rain-soaked tournament, making an amazing 14 birdies in 30 holes on Friday, as the Genesis Open scrambled to try to make up for Thursday’s seven-hour rain delay.
Thomas and most of the leaders will begin Sunday with almost all of their third round to complete before heading straight back out for the final round in hopes of avoiding a Monday finish.
The 25-year-old is 13-under par and one shot ahead of Australian Adam Scott, who has found magic in his putter.
The groups will not re-pair before beginning the final round, so Scott will play with Thomas and J.B. Holmes
(-11) all day on Sunday.
“That’s good if I’m keeping up with him or ahead of him,” Scott said of playing with Thomas.
Hot on Thomas’ heels are Patrick Rodgers (-11), Michael Thompson (-10) and Kyle Jones (-9). One shot further back there is plenty of star power as Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Tony Finau are tied at eight-under par. Behind them lurking at seven-under is defending and three-time champion Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm. Then, it’s Tiger.
Adam Hadwin’s day went from a grind to a disaster. The Canadian played his entire second round on Saturday and it was an up-and-down battle all the way around. He birdied his first hole of the day (the 10th) and went eagle, birdie at Hole Nos. 18 and 1 to get to 5-under par and looked as though he might be having himself a day.
“I hit two great iron shots on 18 and one and played those in three-under but then couldn’t find the club face on two,” he said Saturday afternoon in between rounds two and three.
A bogey at the second was followed by three more on the final nine holes and he headed to Round 3 at twounder par.
“It was really close midround to being a really good round but I didn’t scramble well at all today,” Hadwin said. “It’s close. A lot of good things are happening I just have to clean up some of that ... crap, for lack of a better term.”
Unfortunately he wasn’t able to clean it up and things went straight downhill to start Round 3 with four bogeys and a double through eight holes. Hadwin will begin Sunday at five-over par.
Nick Taylor is the top Canadian at two-under for the week. He started his third round with two birdies in a row and has 13 holes to finish Round 3. He’s hoping for a strong finish and then some much-needed rest.
“It’s been a long west coast with a lot of rain,“he said between Rounds 3 and 4. “A day and a half more and then a week off.”